Chief Information Security Officer

Neo Financial Neo Financial is shaping the future of how Canadians spend, save, and earn. Join now and discover a modern way to manage your money.

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Come Build a Better Financial Future for all Canadians

At Neo, we’re building a more rewarding financial experience for all Canadians.

Life at a rapidly expanding tech startup is demanding, exhilarating, and not for everyone.

From world-class creative minds to brilliant engineers, it's high-performing people that make Neo a workplace with passion and purpose.

Since being founded in 2019, Neo has built incredible traction and is one of the fastest growing fintechs in Canada.

• LinkedIn’s Top Startup in Canada for 2022 and 2023
• Top-ranked mobile apps and credit cards
• Canada’s top-rated credit card
• Team of 700+ people
• 1M+ customers in 3 years

High Performance at Neo

We recruit, hire, and build our company culture around these attributes:

Teamwork: We trust, respect, encourage, and show up for each other — through good times and hard. We’re on this mission not just for ourselves, but also for the people we work with — and ultimately, for our customers.

Ownership: We all have a stake in Neo’s success — so we go out of our way to do what needs to get done. We hold ourselves accountable to deliver on our commitments — to our customers, to our partners, and to our team. When we fall short, we find a way to do better in the future.

Professional Integrity: We’re asking millions of Canadians to trust us with their hard-earned money — so we hold ourselves (and each other) to the highest standards of integrity.

The Role

We’re looking to expand Neo leadership by adding an experienced, brilliant and proven Chief Information Security Officer to our team in Calgary, AB. As our CISO, you will oversee all information security and cybersecurity initiatives, while adding your industry expertise and strategic savvy to our team. You’ll work directly with our co-founders and roll up your sleeves to help us to develop and execute against the business strategy. You’ll collaborate with stakeholders across the business to identify and develop Neo’s key strategic priorities from a security perspective.

In this role, you can shape the future of banking in Canada. You will have oversight and responsibility for corporate IT security, digital product security, cloud infrastructure security, and overall security posture. You bring experience building security teams - including security testing teams - and can develop a comprehensive, effective approach for a product and technology-driven company leading the way in digital banking in Canada. Your visionary leadership will inspire a high performing team working together to grow a top-tier iconic brand.

What you'll be doing

• Develop and execute our cybersecurity strategy, and act as a strategic partner to senior leaders by proactively identifying opportunities for innovation, improvement, and growth.
• Articulate a vision for the company's security now and in the future.
• Create a culture of security across the entire organization through public speaking, training, documentation and enforcing accountability.
• Assume full ownership of our security posture and roadmap, ensuring each item on our roadmap fits into the overall business strategy at Neo.
• Work closely with our Risk and Compliance team to ensure high-level controls and policies are implemented through best-in-class technology and automation.
• Work closely with our CTO, VP Software Development, and other leaders to ensure we build and maintain secure products and secure systems.
• Ensure alignment to documented industry standards for security, facilitating internal audits and working with third-party auditors as needed to maintain compliance.
• Inspire, manage and lead a high functioning cybersecurity team to achieve our vision, setting priorities and holding the team accountable for clear goals & milestones.
• Become an expert in our products, technology, and systems.
• Lead the company smoothly through change, adoption of process improvements, and further adoption of best practices while minimizing friction or disruption.
• Take a charismatic approach to communicating security posture or negotiating security agreements with other C-level and VP-level stakeholders in enterprise companies.
• Review contractual and legal terms related to security; author policies, build process documentation, and build practice documentation for internal and external use.
• Contribute significantly to creating trust in Neo, including external communications, thought-leadership, authoring articles, public-speaking or public-relations work.
• Ensure applicable security metrics are tracked and measured appropriately to demonstrate effectiveness and allow for continuous optimization.
• Ensure rigor and discipline across company-wide programs that are mission critical or where absolute perfection can really matter.

Who we are looking for

• 10+ years of experience in related technology and/or cybersecurity roles including 3+ years experience in a similar leadership role (CSO, CISP, CTO, VP, etc).
• At least one major certification such as CISSP, C|CISO, CISM or similar, or post-grad degree.
• Exposure to substantial and significant scale within a fast-paced, fast-growing company.
• Fluency across both corporate IT security and product cybersecurity areas.
• Experience in a heavily regulated industry dealing with regulatory compliance and handling sensitive and private data (banking, finance, equities, medicine, etc).
• Demonstrated ability to drive change and manage teams to ensure quality, timely delivery of projects.
• Hands-on experience collaborating with in-house software development teams, including experience securing web and mobile applications and securing data environments.
• Expert knowledge of infrastructure security, strongly focused on cloud-based infrastructure security practices and technologies. Expertise in AWS cloud preferred.
• Success hiring and fostering growth of your team in parallel with fast-paced execution.
• Business-first and solution-oriented approach to security that goes far beyond identifying gaps, finding problems, allocating vendor spending, or documenting risks.
• Both tactically and strategically minded. You should be able to operate in the weeds, but also be the leader with the ability to build security strategy, roadmaps, and frameworks.

Working at Neo

Joining Neo means betting on yourself and discovering your full potential. As individuals and as a team, we continually challenge ourselves and each other to do our best work. We’re making change happen at a rapid pace — providing endless opportunities to sharpen your skills, expand your knowledge, and find new solutions to complex problems. That means rapid career progression and constant learning opportunities.

The people who thrive at Neo are resourceful, relentless, and want to win. We hold ourselves to high standards, because we’re on a mission that matters — to transform financial services for the better. If that’s what you’re looking for, read on.

We trust, respect, and show up for each other. That means truthful conversations, frequent feedback, and working with people who push you to be your best. We’re evolving quickly as an organization, we work together in person, and the pace of progress isn’t for everyone. That’s why we’re looking for change-makers who love a challenge — who would rather blaze a trail through uncertainty than travel a well-paved road.

Our team members earn meaningful equity in the company through stock options — so Neo’s growth benefits everyone who helps make it happen. That also means taking on more responsibility than you may have had at your last job. We don’t get hung up on job titles or hierarchy — we’re focused on doing what it takes to accomplish our mission.

Check out these videos from our employees to learn more about Working at Neo .

Apply with Us

We believe in equal opportunity, and are committed to creating an inclusive climate where everyone can thrive. Customers trust us with their finances, so successful candidates for this position will be required to undergo a security screening, including a criminal records check and a credit check.

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